MTN promised to stop “disappearing airtime” – We tested its claim

This was despite mobile data usage being turned off in Android, and the devices being connected to an Internet-connected Wi-Fi connection.

The tests showed that the airtime balances on the MTN SIMs connected to an LTE network, but not using mobile data according to Android’s data-monitoring tool, steadily depleted over the course of several days.

MTN stated that the data traffic used by the devices was valid data traffic, but it would implement measures to address the scenario where “a user disables mobile data and remains connected to the network via the LTE technology” and mobile data is consumed.

It added that the data usage was not control plane traffic – which was the suspect when competing networks were asked for comment on the matter.

It said the move would align it with the rest of the industry and prevent the airtime depletion phenomenon on its LTE network from continuing.

Following MTN’s promise, MyBroadband placed an LTE-enabled MTN SIM into a Huawei P8 to see if its airtime balance would remain untouched.

The test

After loading the SIM with airtime, we noted the airtime balance as R8.98 on 7 August.

We then set the device up in multiple configurations, changing its settings to determine whether the airtime balance was decreasing. The airtime balance of the SIM was checked at regular intervals during the test.

The following results were observed from 7-10 August:

Mobile data off and active Wi-Fi connection – The airtime balance did not decrease.